Keg and Stephen waiting for lunch in Ghermu, Nepal while viewing photos Keg took that morning.
Very early during a Spring, 2011 trek around the Annapurna Circuit, I realized something wonderful about this father and son. Stephen and Keg were more like very good friends than parent and sibling. Actually, I first noticed their close friendship at breakfast in our hotel before we even started the trek. They liked the same brewed coffee, shunning the instant that the hotel provided with the included breakfast. They even had matching iPads.
Brewed coffee in Kathmandu
Stephen with Lumix on private bus to Besi Shar
Days earlier, when most of us boarded our transport to Logan Airport in Lebanon, NH, Stephen accidentally left his DSLR camera behind. He realized that halfway to Boston. Leeli called her son, who worked for Cape Air, and arranged for the camera be flown to Boston in time to meet Stephen before our flight to Nepal. Stephen’s wife, Martha, would drop the camera at the Cape Air terminal in Lebanon. After Martha delivered it, she called Stephen and commented that it was very windy at the airport. He thought nothing of this until he learned that his camera did not arrive in Boston because the flight was canceled due to high winds.
All was not lost since Stephen still had three cameras with him: an iPhone, a small Panasonic Lumix, and a very nice, mirrorless camera with a built-in zoom lens that he had purchased for Keg. I might have considered loaning Keg the Lumix for the trek and used the new more powerful camera myself. But Stephen didn’t. He spent the trek using his Lumix while Keg got proficient with the new camera.
On the first full day in Nepal, we visited Patan and Pashupatinath while waiting for the son of one of our companions to catch a flight from Hawaii after missing his earlier flight.
While driving through the wild traffic on a small private bus, we saw someone stopped by a policeman. Keg commented, “what could you possibly do here to merit a stop”.
Chhongba hired a tour guide for us at Patan. I barely listened to his speeches choosing to concentrate on photography.
At Paten we saw a sculpture made of plastic bottles.
Shree Pashupatinath is the oldest Hindu temple complex in Nepal, dating back to 400 BC. The temple and the ground it’s built on are so sacred that only Hindus may enter. At Pashupatinath we saw a body being prepared for cremation from across the Bagmati river.
The next day we took an all-day bus trip to Besi Shar. Here we are leaving Kathmandu.
Keg and Stephen with matching iPads
A week before we were scheduled to leave for the Annapurna Circuit, I badly pulled a calf muscle while exercising. The 36 hour trip to Kathmandu did the calf no favors.
The next morning I woke jetlagged in our Kathmandu hotel room and could barely walk. The rest of the group headed to Thamel, the crowded tourist area, but I declined. I limped a couple of blocks from the hotel and then gave up. No way was this going to stop me from the trek, but I was not sure how I could make it.
Then there was the bus ride from Kathmandu to Besi Shar. That evening I walked the village with Stephen and Keg. Keg commented that it looked like a third-world village anywhere.
The next morning my leg was feeling a bit better, but I got behind the group taking photos at the top of a long downhill right at the start of the day’s hike. Foolishly I rushed downhill and that made my calf much worse. Keg suggested I give my pack to a sherpa to lighten the load and I did. I somehow made it through the day.
The next day at lunch I asked Dr. Stephen what to do about a sore calf. He suggested his son Keg, who was a runner, would be the person to consult. I did and Keg told me compression, rest, Motrin, and stretching. Keg taught me how to stretch and loaned me an Ace bandage which I used during the rest of the trip.
His advice worked great. There was only one other time I had to have a sherpa carry my pack. That was when I again foolishly hurried downhill after an acclimatization hike. We stayed two nights in Chame and did an acclimatization hike. The technique is to hike high, rest for 30-60 minutes, and then come down for the night. “Hike high, sleep low.”
Keg and Stephen above Chame on an acclimatization hike
Ninety minutes after the acclimatization hike we were back in our very comfortable two-story lodge in Chame where I photographed this scene. I feel this photo well reflects their close friendship.
The next day we hiked by a very impressive cliff and a path cut below it above a steep drop to the river. In the first photo you can see Keg with the red shirt and larger camera photographing the cliff with Stephen. In the next photo Keg is peering over the edge of the sharp drop. Meanwhile I was photographing the scene ahead of us. Parts of this trek we’re not for the faint of heart.
Five days later we crossed the high pass which is Throng La(17,769 feet). To the left you can see Stephen and Keg flanking Chhongba Sherpa at the pass.
From my notebook:“Coming down from the pass Stephen, Keg, and I got way ahead. I stopped to wait for my pack so I could stuff gloves, neck warmer, and wool hat and a top in — hoping they would fit.(The sherpas carried our packs across the pass for us. That was a great help.) I also wanted water and a wide brim hat from the pack. Looking back up hill toward the pass, it looks almost impossible, or at least very challenging. What a great day! And no cold, headache, or diarrhea.”
We descended looking at the amazing dry area of Mustang to our right. Very little snow after the pass. Amazingly, some people were pushing mountain bikes uphill. We visited a combination Buddhist and Hindu temple above the village of Muktinath.
Muktinath had little to recommend it. There were marginal hotels named Bob Marley, Paradise, and Mona Lisa. I slept on the second floor almost on the front patio and had very noisy neighbors. Perhaps 4-6 men in the same room. As“Stephen put it,“Muktinath is a shitty town”.
The next day Chhongba wanted to hire a few jeeps to drive us down to Kagbeni – the roads came up to Muktinath. But we rebelled. We wanted to walk. It was half snowing and half raining when we left. Here are Keg and Stephen heading down.
Eventually the snow stopped. Then it was a very dry and dusty walk. The masks we wore at this point were not for covid but for the dust.
A day later Keg shared a photo on his camera with Stephen at a restaurant in Marpha.
As happens near the end of each trek, there is a semi-wild party for the trekkers, sherpas, and porters. This time it was held at our hotel in Jomson. The photo below includes Lisa, one of the trekkers in our group that circled Annapurna.
